For a lot of people travel insurance is merely one of numerous extras which the travel agent tries to get us to add to our holiday package to assist in boosting his profits and to make our holiday even more expensive than it needs to be. Nonetheless, there are at least 3 very important reasons for not leaving home without your international travel medical insurance plan tucked safely into your pocket.

First, travel insurance will protect you from losing all of your financial investment in your holiday should an emergency arise and you are forced to cancel your trip. This is especially true if you are booking your holiday some time ahead because you never know what may happen in the weeks or months leading up to your departure. This said, by their very nature emergencies have a habit of appearing at any time and without notice and so this is one type of protection which really should not be set against any timeframe.

It is natural to feel that nothing is ever going to happen to us however a holiday can frequently involve a large up-front payment and the loss of these funds may mean that you cannot re-book your trip at a later date.

Second, travel insurance enables you to pay for medical treatment both while you are traveling and in your destination country and, in the event of a serious accident or illness, will also pay for you and your family to return home if this proves necessary.

Medical treatment may be excellent at your destination and it might even be very much less expensive than it is at home. Nonetheless, a day or two in hospital could still produce a substantial bill which eats deeply into your holiday spending money. You might also find that medical treatment at your destination will leave a lot to be desired and you may well have to curtail your trip and return home to get the treatment you need.

Third, travel insurance will provide protection for your possessions both while you are traveling and abroad so that you will receive compensation in the event of loss or damage.

If you have spent any time traveling then you will probably have experienced the loss of your luggage at some point and will know only too well just how inconvenient and expensive it is. I will never forget stopping for a meal on my way to the airport on one holiday and carefully locking my bag out of sight in the trunk of my hire car. When I returned to the car roughly half an hour later I discovered that someone had forced the lock on the passenger door and folded the rear seat down to get into the boot and steal my case.

I also well remember waiting at a traffic light one hot and sunny day in Portugal when a motorcycle pulled up beside the car and a young man reached in through the passenger side window and snatched my mother's purse which was on the floor by her feet.

Traveling abroad is expensive enough but heading off without suitable and adequate insurance can result in bills that you simply do not have the money to pay. Accordingly, if you are making plans for a trip remember to add travel insurance to your list.

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